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Introduction
contextinwhichtheyoriginated.Insocialscience,ontheoth-
erhand,themultifacetedinteractionbetweentheresearcher
andtheworldbeingstudiedhastobeconstantlyrecognized
iftheresearchistobeconsideredaccurate.Anydefinitionof
asocialsituationisnecessarilymarkedbythesystemofmean-
ingsandbeliefsresultingfromthescholar’ssocialisation.Not
allscholarsareequallyawarethisisthecase.Thosesuffi-
cientlyconsciousallowforthefactintheirresearchstrategy
bydistancingthemselvesfromtheirownsocioculturalcondi-
tioningandrecognizingtheaspectsofdifferenceintroducedby
theother.Intellectualopennesstounfamiliarnotionsandphe-
nomenaleadsnotonlytoawiderunderstandingoftheworld
butalsotoarealizationoftherichnessofvariablesshaping
everyparticularsocialsituation,andthusurgescautioninex-
portingmodelsofsociallife.Onlysomeofthosesituations
arecommontoallpeopleandsocieties,whilemanyothersare
uniqueintherichnessoftheirconfigurations.
Unfortunately,someresearchersignoretheirconditioning
andeithertreatthepeopletheystudyasthoughtheywere
physicalobjectsratherthansubjectsoractasifdifferencesin
socialisationborenoinfluenceontheappraisalofbehaviour,
whileseeingtheirownsocioculturalbackgroundasuigener-
isobjectivepointofreference.1Suchareductionistapproach,
whichfailstoacknowledgetheimmensediversityofthehu-
manworld,hasitsproponentsnotonlyarriveatandpublicise
falseconclusionsbutalso,andmoreimportantly,issueprac-
ticalrecommendationsforsocialsubjectsdespitethelackof
conditionswhichwouldallowtheseprojectstobeimplement-
ed.Whenthestructuresofdominantcultureproduceandpro-
moteasexemplarycertainmodelsofsocialactionwhileig-
noringthehistory,diversityandcomplexityofforeignpeople
andsocieties,thisgivesrisetotensions.Boththediagnosisof
socialproblemsandtheproposedremedialmeasuresneedto
accountforthemultipleuniquefeaturesofthegivensociety.
AstheanthropologistEwaNowickaputit:
1Foracriticalillustration,seeRussellBishop,Freeingourselvesfromneo-
-colonialdominationinresearch:AKaupapaMäoriapproachtocreatingknowledge,in:
TheSageHandbookofQualitativeResearch,NormanK.Denzin,YvonnaS.Lincoln
(eds.),Sage,ThousandOaks,CA2005,p.109–135.
